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Traditional drums clinic trains youths on music note development

Adisa Timothy giving an illustration of a music note to participants at the Drums Clinic.

The 2014Isioma
Williams’ drums clinic tagged‘My music
note,’ targeted the development of music notes in traditional African songs
just as it also applies fordrumming.

Organised by Drums View atthe Gongbeat Studio, participants were taught
the importance of developing the skills in writing down music notes to make
their songs and drumming become more globally accessible.

A cross section of participants.

Like participants were taught, Western music is easily
appreciated because they have notes that strangers can look up, follow and get
the tunes as the original work.

The organisers say the interest to do this came from
the desire to document original works of arts from Africa and Nigeria
particularly. This was done with the hope to preserve work of African heritage,
as a number of them had been lost due to lack of documentation to benefit the
younger generation.

Timothy explaining a point to some participants.

Abiodun Timothy featured as an instructor and shared
his experience in the 5-day music note clinic. He lamented that many Nigerian
musicians could only sing, but not write their songs, thus reducing the value
of their music.

“The study of traditional music instrument has been
done orally over the years by our forefathers, but it is important to put them
down so that we don’t lose originality.

“If we write and publish our African music, they will
appreciate it better and that can yield money for owners of the works.”

Isioma taking one of the sessions.

He urged Nigerian artistes to begin on the efforts to
put down their songs in the universal language for them to be appreciated.

Timothy who at present studies music at the University
of Ibadan, enjoyed the MTN scholarship and was trained in music at the Musical
Society of Nigeria (MUSON).

Much as he enjoyed the practical lessons he got during
his training at MUSON, Timothy who plays different musical instruments
including the Saxophone, said studying music at the university was a lot more
detailed. And he hopes to combine his ideas from both the Western and African
experience of learning and understanding music.

As a participant at the drums clinic, Akam James
Abishai said learning how to write down African music note required
pains-taking efforts to know and master the art. He, however, advised that the
gain outweighs the pain.